Each instrument in the orchestral sample library consists of two parts: wave files and the sfz scripts that configure how the wave files are to be used. Since there are now 2 versions of the sfz script files (Standard, Performance) that both share the same wave files, it makes sense to allow people to choose which version of the sfz scripts they want and optionally to download both versions of the sfz scripts without needing to download the wave files twice if the wave files were included in each version of the library. Also, since sfz script files are updated more often than the wave files, it makes sense to keep them separate.

Some have commented that the mod wheel doesn’t work or doesn’t do anything. I suspect it’s mostly that I haven’t explained it well, or perhaps at all.

The mod wheel, in the samples labelled “normal-mod-wheel”, (found in the Standard Orchestra edition) adjusts the attack of the samples. When the mod wheel is at it’s lowest setting and a note is played, you will hear the note right away. When the mod wheel is at its highest setting, the note will “slowly” build. It may seem like a subtle difference but the instrument will not sound realistic if the note builds any more slowly than at the maximum mod wheel setting.

To hear the effect, try the following test:

Load the “flute-SEC-normal-mod-wheel.sfz” file, rapidly play a note and as you are doing that, move the mod wheel from it’s lowest to highest setting. Do you hear the note’s volume decrease as you move the mod wheel up? The volume should decrease simply because as you move the mod wheel up, it takes longer for the sound to reach it’s maximum volume.

The idea behind the mod wheel enabled patches was really to provide a note that is a little quicker than the sustain patches, but is not really a staccato note. I call such a note “normal”. It then occurred to me that perhaps from a performance perspective, it might be useful to be able to dynamically adjust the attack of the note so that with a single patch, you could go from a quick note to a slow building sustained note and anything in between by adjusting the mod wheel while playing.

… which explains how to install and load the rgc:audio sfz player into Sibelius. You will need something like that to use my orchestral library. Instead of rgc:audio sfz, I’d recommend using Sforzando.

Once you have installed Sforzando, you should be able to drag and drop .sfz files from my sample library into Sforzando and then use the chosen sound.

Since my library and the source material is free, I feel it would be wrong for me or anyone else to profit from repackaging or redistributing any of the source material in whole or in part. You may repackage and give away any part of this library for free under a Creative Commons license provided you give appropriate credit to this library as your source of the samples.